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Aug 21 (Reuters) - European shares were flat on
Wednesday as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal
Reserve's July meeting to further gauge the mood of
policymakers, while basic resources kept the index afloat.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index held its ground at
512.74 points by 0711 GMT, after snapping a five-day winning
streak in the previous session.
All regional bourses opened flat and then moved slightly
higher, rising between 0.1% and 0.2%.
Basic resources gained 1.2% after Shanghai aluminium
futures scaled a five-week high, supported by tightness in raw
materials supply.
With no data coming out of Europe on Wednesday, investors
await the Fed minutes due later in the day that are expected to
reinforce a dovish stance.
Preliminary revisions to U.S. labour data are also due to be
published later in the day and a large downward revision is
expected.
Among individual stocks, Voestalpine rose to the
top of the European benchmark, gaining 3.8% after Morgan Stanley
upgraded its rating on the stock to "overweight" from
"equal-weight".
Alcon lost 2.2% after the Swiss eye care company
reported a smaller than expected increase in second-quarter
sales.
Sonova Holding AG dropped 3.2% after Morgan Stanley
downgraded the stock to "underweight" from "equal-weight".
(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank
Dhaniwala)